California bass maestro, Thundercat, has been a busy boy over the past few years, appearing on more people’s records than Azealia Banks has been struck off Christmas card lists. However, he’s finally found time in his relentless schedule to piece together the follow-up to 2015’s mini-album The Beyond/Where The Giants Roam with the help of a remarkable clutch of interstellar co-conspirators including Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, Flying Lotus, and Wiz Khalifa.
First track out of the traps is the luscious, loungy ‘Show You The Way’, upon which ol’ ‘Cat shares the mic with yacht-rock totems Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald. Three minutes and thirty-four seconds of smooooooth with a capital smoo, ‘… Way’ sits you down poolside with a large Margherita and promises, with a saucy wink, that canapés will indeed be arriving in a few minutes. Fender Rhodes swashes and splashes around thick, sumptuous vocal harmonies and glinting synth flashes, while our virtuosic hero introduces his esteemed and distinguished collaborators with élan, verve, and just a little bit of tongue-in-cheek – while proving that he can absolutely hold his own vocally in league with the two 80s titans of blazer.
Talking about the song to Red Bull Music Academy, he explained of the collaboration: “Kenny Loggins is one of my favourite songwriters. I think one of the most beautiful moments of it was realising how amazing Michael McDonald was. He would go through so many ideas and have so much to offer… That song, to me, is about going down the rabbit hole, taking you to another place… Sometimes it’s a pretty intense thing. The point is how weird things can get. I feel like it’s very funny that, in a way, of course, Michael McDonald and Kenny would be there.”
Show You The Way‘s parent LP, Drunk, is out 24th February via Brainfeeder.
